After playing a pivotal role in the early success of Jake Paul, former UFC champion Tyron Woodley feels like he’s being disrespected by the social media star.
After making a name for himself by fighting a series of past-their-prime MMA stars, ‘The Problem Child’ is hellbent on becoming more than another influencer hoping to make a few bucks in the sweet science. Recently, Paul revealed that he would be partnering with Team USA Boxing for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The announcement came a few days removed from his impressive first-round knockout against Andre August in Orlando.
However, Jake Paul’s dreams don’t solely rest inside the squared circle. Next year, he’s slated to make his highly anticipated mixed martial arts debut under the PFL banner. No official announcements have been made, but Paul has been aggressively approaching Nate Diaz with the hopes of goading the former UFC fan favorite into accepting a scrap inside the Smart Cage.
Speaking of Paul’s first foray into MMA, two-time ‘Problem Child’ challenger Tyron Woodley is feeling a bit disrespected by the fact that he is not being considered for the spot that Nate Diaz is being so desperately courted for.
“I think if you’re going to fight anybody in MMA, you fight me in MMA,” Woodley told TMZ. “I’m the one that did the numbers with you. I’m the one that had the crazy millions and millions of views in the press conference. I’m the one that was a five-time champion. I’m the one that took the fight on two weeks’ notice.
“I was [filming] Cobra Kai for 14 hours straight. I trained at 3 a.m. and I saved that card. That card was not going to happen. People would not have been buying Christmas gifts had I not stepped up to the plate. So to talk about fighting anybody in MMA outside of me is disrespect” (h/t MMA Fighting).
‘The Chosen One’ suffered a split decision loss to Jake Paul in August 2021 before accepting a short-notice opportunity to run it back four months later. The second time around, Woodley suffered a brutal knockout in the sixth round.
As a Former UFC Champion, Tyron Woodley Believes he is more deserving than nate diaz
Despite the back-to-back losses against Paul in the boxing ring, Woodley believes he is the most logical choice for a rematch in MMA given his history of collecting world championship wins. Something Diaz and other fighters vying for the spot have never accomplished.
“If you really, really want to prove that you can do it in my world, you fight the No. 1 guy in that world,” Woodley said. “Nate has never touched gold, never been close to gold ever. Either has [Derek] Brunson and I saw some other people barking. Everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon. You kind of sound like groupies. Everybody wants to fight Jake. Remember, I never asked to fight Jake. I was staying out the mix. I was cornering Ben Askren.
“They asked to fight me. Ben said ‘you should ask to fight Tyron.’ I wasn’t even focused on this kid. I wasn’t even thinking about boxing him and then the fight came to me. Even the second time around, they came to me and asked me to fill in because Tommy [Fury] couldn’t fight. I’m just the guy that stepped up and I stepped up in a major way.”
Tyron Woodley captured the welterweight title at UFC 201, besting ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler via a first-round KO. He went on to defend the title four times against Demian Maia, Darren Till, and Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson on two separate occasions before surrendering the strap to Kamaru Usman, ending his nearly three-year-long reign.
“MMA wise, the fact that we’re not even speaking about me fighting him, especially with my affiliation with the PFL, it’s kind of disrespectful,” Woodley said.
Though Woodley is admittedly a little bitter over the PFL snub, ‘The Chosen One’ had nothing, but positive things to say about Jake Paul’s boxing career. He even served as part of the broadcast team on DAZN for Paul’s latest win.
“I thought he did a great job,” Woodley said about Paul’s performance. “I literally said, ‘Hey man, Andre better watch ducking his head because he’s going to get hit with an up, I couldn’t even say uppercut. I just got the U-P off and then he was sending him to the moon.”